Allan Massie is a Scottish writer who has published nearly 30 books, including a sequence of novels set in ancient Rome. His non-fiction works range from a study of Byron's travels to a celebration of Scottish rugby. He has been a political columnist for The Scotsman, The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph and writes a literary column for The Spectator.

David Frost was a deft interviewer, but it's unlikely that he really outwitted Richard Nixon

David Frost was an accomplished broadcaster, always at ease before the cameras, and a deft interviewer. Nobody can last in television for half a century without being a master of the medium. Nevertheless I’ve often wondered about what is generally regarded as his finest hour, the extraction of an apology for Watergate from Richard Nixon. It happened of course, but the question is whether Frost jockeyed Nixon into admitting his culpability, or whether the admission and apology were part of Nixon’s own programme of rehabilitation. That programme, which enabled him to present himself as a wise elder statesman, was already under way when he agreed to the Frost interviews. Frost went along with it in the first programmes, allowing Nixon to speak authoritatively and intelligently on world affairs. Then, according to received opinion, having lulled the ex-President into a false sense of security, Frost sprang Watergate on him, and Nixon was led to offer his famous apology.

It doesn’t ring quite true. Nixon must have known that Frost would raise the question. If he didn’t want to speak about Watergate, he could either have refused to be interviewed, or could have stipulated in the contractual agreement that the topic was barred. Since he apparently did neither, it follows that he was expecting Frost’s line of questioning and was prepared to come clean. He had good reason to do so, not only because the American public loves an apology – think of the Oprah show – but also because he had to get Watergate out of the way if he was to repair his reputation.

Frost was an intelligent man, but so was Nixon. Whatever his faults of character, his intelligence and grasp of public affairs were rarely in doubt. It’s unlikely that he was outwitted by Frost or lured into saying something he didn’t want to say. I’m not suggesting that he outsmarted Frost, but rather that in apparently giving Frost his triumph, he served his own purposes. The interviews did Frost good, but they did Nixon good too. In the last resort they were perhaps less a conflict than an exercise in collusion. Frost emerged with his reputation as an interviewer enhanced, Nixon further on the way to becoming the elder statesman whom subsequent Presidents and Secretaries of State turned to for advice on Foreign Affairs. Successful interviews often leave both parties as winners. The Frost-Nixon ones certainly did just that.